On June 18, 22-year-old former prison guard Joshua Lee of Wyandotte received an 18-month to 15-year prison sentence. Washtenaw County Circuit Court Judge Arianne E. Slay issued the ruling after Lee pleaded guilty to second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a state prisoner.

The director of Michigan’s prison system is pushing back against criticism of conditions within state correctional facilities. In a letter sent Thursday to U.S. Representative Debbie Dingell, Heidi Washington defended the department’s record, stating that it has become a national model in corrections and noting that inmate complaints are a routine part of prison operations.

A federal appeals court has ruled that 11 Livingston County jail officers cannot be sued in connection with the 2018 death of detainee John Griswold. The decision by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court ruling and has renewed scrutiny of qualified immunity protections for law enforcement.

Khaira Howard, a 28-year-old Detroit woman who was expected to be released on parole May 27, died May 13 at Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility near Ypsilanti. Michigan Department of Corrections spokesperson Jenni Riehle confirmed the death in a May 14 email to the Detroit Free Press, saying the cause remains under investigation but appears to be connected to an unexpected personal health emergency.

In a move to address long-standing mobility issues, the MDOC recently delivered 90 wheelchairs to Michigan’s sole women’s prison. The shipment follows an investigation by Disability Rights Michigan that exposed a dire shortage of equipment, effectively trapping some residents and causing them to miss basic needs. While advocates described the situation as a long-term failure, this new equipment aims to rectify the safety hazards identified in the report.

Even as she was led away in handcuffs by police, Claire McClinton’s resolve remained clear. The yellow tape used by her group to mark their protest at the state Capitol was gone, and her cardboard “tombstone” for clean water had been seized. Despite the chaos, her crisp white shirt still carried the day’s essential message: four years of the Flint water crisis was four years too many.

A Michigan prison has become the site of a fourth suspected inmate homicide in five weeks. Since late March, deaths have been reported almost weekly across four prisons, with all incidents under review by the Michigan State Police.

In 2014, the city of Flint, Michigan changed its water source to save money, a decision that exposed tens of thousands of residents to dangerous levels of lead. Children were harmed. Families were let down. And for years, government at every level failed to act. In that moment, LaShaya Darisaw emerged—not as a bystander, but as an organizer driven by conviction and equipped with the strategy to respond.

More than $959 million was paid out in 2025 to thousands of Michigan Department of Corrections employees. The department manages 26 prisons across the state, with a population of about 33,000 incarcerated individuals, and is also responsible for probation and parole oversight.

According to current and former employees, Michigan’s newest public youth treatment center opened prematurely last summer and is now effectively being run by its residents. A lack of training and staffing—paired with several high-acuity teens—has fueled staff burnout, repeated procedural breakdowns, and major safety and security risks at the Mount Clemens facility.